Wilson pleased with IU’s approach to scrimmage #iufb

The Indiana coach said the funky summer weather serves his team well as it prepares to open the season on Florida International’s campus in Miami on Sept. 1. With storms hovering over central Indiana on Saturday morning, Indiana was forced to begin its practice inside Mellencamp Pavilion. The team did make it outside, but had to head back and finish the day inside the indoor facility once lightning appeared in the vicinity.

Saturday’s scrimmage was not open to reporters, but Wilson said in a video posted by IU athletics that his team made the most of their time together.

“We’ve had some humidity, which has been awesome,” Wilson said. “We’ve tried to push them with being smart about it. With the weather we’re gonna have in the opener, and the weather we’re gonna have with Ball State early, we’re pushing these guys really hard and they’re handling it. … We’ve had it happen here, especially with the opener going down to South Florida, (where) you get some delays. It don’t matter. You still have to deal with it. We took advantage of the day and I think the kids did great.”

Wilson believes it may have been Indiana’s longest scrimmage during his time as coach and, afterward, expressed his pleasure with the defense. Coordinator Tom Allen’s unit started “really strong,” Wilson said, and got in a good deal of work in the red zone.

Wilson was also especially pleased with the open-field tackling. Linebackers Tegray Scales, Dameon Willis and Marcus Oliver did well in that regard, as did hybrid safeties Marcelino Ball and Zeke Walker.

“I thought some of the one-on-one tackling was the best it’s been,” Wilson said. “It’ll be interesting to see that on tape. I think also, too, that’s a little bit of our defense understanding the leverage of the defense, and I think our defense understands where their help is. So they’re being more aggressive because I don’t think we’re out of position a lot right now. I think that’s why we tackled well.”

Wilson didn’t go into detail about his quarterbacks, saying only that he needed to continue bringing them along. He also said he wants to see more toughness at the line of scrimmage and with his running backs.

Overall, however, the coach seemed happy with what he saw.

“I like the ending of this first week,” Wilson said. “Gotta have another good week, but it’s going good.”